PMD: The Empty Land
by TheBlueSuit
Summary: In a world that has lost its faith in Rescue Teams, two young Pokémon set out on a desperate search for adventure. When they encounter a wandering, amnesiac Quilava, their lives change in ways they could have never imagined. For dark secrets of the past are returning, prophecies are being made, and even the strongest may be merely pawns in a greater game...
1. Prologue: Confusion

****Standard disclaimer: Pokémon is owned by Nintendo.

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**Prologue: Confusion**

Night blanketed the desert in cool silence. Stars wheeled overhead, faint pinpricks of light occasionally obscured by a skein of drifting cloud. To the east, a crescent moon hung low over the horizon, its beams casting a wan glow across the endless sand.

A Pokémon lay curled tightly at the bottom of a low dune, half covered by the faint shadow the dune cast. Its eyes were closed; its sides barely moved as it breathed lightly and regularly. Viewed from above, the Pokémon rested at the heart of a crazed pattern of shifted sand disturbed by countless footprints. Scabs of smooth glass clung to the ground where intense heat had scorched the sand.

A light breeze whispered across the dunes, playfully tossing a few loose grains of sand. It brushed against the Pokémon's face, triggering a quiet sniffle and then a sneeze, exploding through the desert's silence. The Pokémon's eyelids fluttered open, revealing red eyes that stared up in confusion at the night sky.

Groaning quietly, the Pokémon uncurled and tried to stand up. For a moment it tottered unsteadily on two legs, but then gravity and physiology asserted themselves, and it tumbled forward in a belly flop that sent up a puff of sand. The second attempt, the Pokémon putting equal weight on all four legs, was more successful. It took a shaky step forwards, trying to accustom itself to an unfamiliar way of moving. Four legs felt different—felt wrong.

With painful slowness, the Pokémon made its way up the nearest sand dune. The hummock was little more than twice the Pokémon's height, but it felt like a sheer-sided mountain. Beyond the confusion of its body's unfamiliarity, the Pokémon realized that it _hurt_. Bruises had bloomed under its short fur while it slept; sand-crusted scrapes stung as the night air breathed against them.

The Pokémon tottered the final steps to the apex of the dune and then collapsed, drained by the effort. Through clouded eyes, it looked out across a silent, moonlit sea of sand. No visible landmarks, no way to tell in which direction shelter might lie. The desert was as empty and alien as the surface of the moon. Slowly, the Pokémon became aware that it had no memory of ever seeing this place before—no recollection of how it had gotten here, or why it had been asleep, injured, in the middle of the desert.

If the Pokémon hadn't been so tired, it would have panicked. Instead, it rested its head against the warm sand, and let its eyes drift closed. But before it could fall asleep, another gap in its memory presented itself, urgent enough that the Pokémon sat bolt upright, staring out at the desert with wide eyes. The hole in its memory felt vaster than the endless moonlit sand, darker than the empty spaces in the starlit sky.

"Who am I?" the Quilava asked, in a voice it had never heard before. The desert gave no answer.

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_TheBlueSuit presents:  
_

_Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: The Empty Land_

_A Pokémon Fanfiction_


	2. One: Heat Wave

**Chapter One: Heat Wave**

At noon on a scorching summer day, the tiny town of Topaz was deader than a Mandibuzz's leftovers. The town's denizens, although long since inured to the desert's heat, chose to stay inside the ramshackle buildings that afforded them some protection from the sunlight that struck like a hammer. There was not a scrap of shade to be found in the entire town; the earth in the central square was dry and cracked, desperate for water, and the few tufts of grass that clung to the soil drooped lifelessly. A faint breeze ruffled through the layers of dust and sand that coated everything.

Through the parched, empty town walked the only Pokémon who dared to brave the heat. No, it wasn't even a matter of daring; she had to be outside to do her job, so outside into the cruel sunlight she had gone. Lee's heavy scales were baking; sweat dripped into her eyes. Shaking her head to clear her vision, she continued her solitary march around the town square.

It wasn't even a very pressing task that sent her out into the stifling heat, she reflected as she trudged along. More of a charity position than anything else. Old Effen, the grizzled Watchog mayor, paid her a few pennies a day to pick up any trash she saw lying around. Lee had picked the town squeaky clean many times over—any rubbish that fell scarcely touched the ground before she snatched it up—but she had to admit that she needed the meager pay desperately. With her mother too weak in body and mind to work, and Finn too young for any job that earned real money, it had fallen to Lee to support their family.

A family now reduced by one. A scowl pulled Lee's mouth down at the corners, around the small tusks that jutted out from her jaw. As she turned the square's corner to continue along the next row of houses, her steps were a bit slower than before, and her head hung a bit lower. Her mother hadn't been herself for nearly nine years; wandering among imagined pasts, she'd barely recognized her own daughter at the end. That did nothing to ease the splintery feeling in Lee's heart.

Focus on the job, she reminded herself, but there was so little to hold her attention. No rubbish on that side of the square; there was nothing at all to clean up, like most days. Lee crossed the sun-baked open space, the ground warm against her feet. The pennies only had to feed her and Finn now, but she needed them more than ever: they were the only way she'd be able to afford a place on one of the caravans across the desert, to Quartz Town or even Opal City. It was time to leave Topaz—so small it didn't even merit a "town" after its name—behind her. With Clove dead, there was nothing to keep her here anymore.

There. She'd said it. Lee scowled more fiercely than ever. For an instant her eyes grew misty, but the tears thankfully evaporated before they could fall. Only sweat streaked her scaly face as she crossed the square.

Effen's house, a small squat hut, sat directly across from the road that led into the village. Like the other twenty or so houses in Topaz, it was built of stacked mud bricks, baked hard and pale by the eternal sun. A canvas tarp served as the roof. Lee knocked on the door, and soon heard the sound of shuffling steps approaching from inside.

The door creaked open, revealing a short and graying Watchog who peered at her with myopic red eyes. "Is Topaz shiny and clean again?" Effen asked in his quiet wheezy voice, as he had every day for the past three years.

It was far beyond Lee's powers to make the dust-coated town anything resembling shiny, but she gave the response she always gave: "Yes, sir."

"Good." The mayor disappeared from the doorway for a minute or so, and then limped back into view with a handful of tiny coins cupped in one paw. With his other paw, he leaned on a gnarled walking stick. Finn insisted that the stick was the leg bone of a Hippowdon bandit Effen had killed in the desert, but Lee was sure that it was just a piece of bleached wood. "There you are, then, Lee."

"Thank you, sir." Clutching the coins, Lee started to turn away; she knew what would follow, and was eager to avoid it.

"And Lee, if there's anything I can do—"

The young Axew was already walking away; she gave no sign of having heard. Effen let the sentence trail off and then closed the door, shaking his head.

With the bloated sun beating down mercilessly, the short walk across the square to her house seemed to take twice as long as normal. A heat haze warped the air in front of the row of low buildings; the coins in Lee's palm grew sticky with sweat. Topaz was always an oven during the summer, but this had to be the hottest day of the year.

Lee pushed open the door, frowning as the rusty hinges squealed, and stepped into the darkness inside the hut with a soft sigh. A glance across the cramped interior told her that Finn had gone back to sleep, curled up in his nest in the far corner. The pennies jingled into the small purse—still far too flat—that hid inside the space left by a loose brick.

The water pail hanging from the wall was bone-dry. Lee sighed and pulled it off the hook, bracing herself to weather the incredible heat again. "Finn?" The bundle of blue and black fur twitched, but did not wake. Lee shrugged. "I'm going to get water," she told the sleeping Shinx, and stepped back out into the furnace that was Topaz.

The well was only a short walk outside of the town, thankfully. The empty bucket banged against Lee's leg with every step she took; the Axew ignored it, lost in thought. The next caravan to pass through Topaz would be the gold wagons coming west from Garnet City in early autumn. By then she should have saved enough money to buy passage with them—but it was such a long time away. Two more months wasted in sleepy Topaz, where nothing ever, _ever_ happened. If any other travelers came through before then, they'd almost surely be going in the other direction: towards the gold mines, rather than away.

She and Finn could try it alone. It wasn't as thought it was _certain_ death—just highly probable. Lee scowled furiously. With the Rescue Teams gone, the desert bandits had grown so brazen that two young Pokémon trying to cross the desert by themselves were certain to be captured, if not killed. She was willing to risk it, but she'd never forgive herself for putting her little brother in danger.

Reaching the well, Lee turned the stiff crank to draw the bucket up from the depths, but her mind was still on the problem. Five days' walk to Quartz Town; if they could make it that far, then… But who knew where the bandits would strike next? Trevor said he'd heard that the dreaded Black Deino gang was hiding out near Quartz Town. Then again, he was probably making it up. The gossipy old Crustle had never been left Topaz in his life.

Water, wonderfully cool, slopped over Lee's hands as she emptied the contents of the bucket into her own pail; a few fat drops landed on the sand and evaporated instantly. She resisted the urge to stick her face in the bucket and drink it all down. Shouldering the much heavier pail, she started back towards Topaz.

Viewed from the well, the village looked absolutely miniscule, a sand-colored irregularity disappearing into the vast emptiness of the desert. Barely twenty little mud-brick huts, surrounded by a sagging fence of wooden stakes—no wood in the desert, of course, so no way to repair the fence now that sections of it were falling down. To a Pokémon who had spent the first years of her life in huge Diamond City, in the shadow of the mountains, Topaz suddenly looked very small and dry. But, she reminded herself with a quiet sigh, it was her home until she could figure out how to escape.

Lee was nearly inside the fence when she heard it: the sound of creaking wood and turning wheels. Spinning around so quickly that she nearly dropped the bucket—_careful_, she reminded herself, steadying it against her side—Lee saw a small wooden cart approaching along the road. Pulled by a burly Seismitoad, the cart was piled high with all sorts of crates and barrels and packages. A tarp, propped up on sticks, shaded an absolutely hideous flower.

The cart rumbled closer, sand spraying from its wheels. Lee squinted through the heat haze, and the deformed flower resolved itself into a Pokémon—and a familiar one, at that. Saggy Sam the Maractus, the traveling desert peddler who hawked everything from elixirs of eternal life to fragments of Groudon's toenails. Only the incredibly gullible ever bought Saggy Sam's goods; Pokémon said that the bandits didn't even bother to attack him anymore, because they knew that Sam never had anything worth stealing.

With a cacophony of squeals from overstressed wood and shrieks from rusty metal, the cart passed Lee and headed on into Topaz. The Seismitoad, sweaty face expressionless, nodded to Lee as he strode by; Sam ignored her, busy rummaging through his boxes and barrels of merchandise in preparation for his inevitable performance. Peeling gold paint along the side of the cart proclaimed _Samuel Sagendorf's Stupendous Spectacles!_, but to Lee, it spelled a way out at last.


	3. Two: Memento

**Chapter Two: Memento**

Despite the sweltering heat, most of the Topaz inhabitants—not that there were very many of them—turned out to greet the arriving peddler. By the time Lee had taken the water pail back to her house and gone outside again, the Seismitoad had parked the cart in the center of the square and a small crowd had gathered. Lee could see Finn near the front, his blue fur standing out clearly amid the muted brown and ocher hues of the rest of Topaz's inhabitants.

Apparently oblivious to the growing throng, Saggy Sam dozed in the scant shade afforded by the tarp that stretched over his merchandise. The Seismitoad lurked nearby, his blue-skinned face shining with sweat. The murmurs among the crowd were beginning to take on a surly undercurrent: the Pokémon had emerged into the blistering heat to see a show, not to wait while the Maractus caught up on his beauty sleep.

Lee joined the crowd, staying near the back, just as Kile shouted at the Seismitoad, "Hey, you! Blue guy! When'll he wake up?" The elderly, nearly-deaf Rhydon's voice was strident at the best of times, and now it cut through the chatter with all the subtlety of an avalanche.

"Yeah!" Matt added, the weedy Sandile as quick as ever to imitate. "When'll he wake up?"

Squinting from beneath the round protrusions on his forehead, the Seismitoad opened his mouth, closed it again, and then shrugged his broad shoulders. Mutters ran through the crowd, to the general effect that this wasn't a satisfactory answer. Kile certainly didn't think so: "You deaf or something?" he demanded at top volume and, apparently, without the slightest awareness of any irony. Lee could see Finn laughing.

"Now, now." A respectful hush rippled out from the front of the crowd, where Effen leaned on his walking stick. "You can't blame Mister Sagendorf for not wanting to put on one of his _fascinating_ shows—" muffled snorts of laughter from the crowd— "at midday in this heat. Perhaps he's waiting until sundown…?"

"Yeah," the Seismitoad croaked, his broad shoulders relaxing as he noticed the way out. "Sundown."

"There you have it, folks." Effen's voice was not loud, but it carried perfectly through the dry, dead air. "Back here at sundown. I'm sure it'll be very entertaining."

At once the Pokémon began to disperse; if the show would not be until later, there was no point standing around outside to be boiled alive by the sun. A few disappointed grumbles floated among the dust kicked up by many feet: Sam's merchandise might be pathetic, but the news he brought about the world outside Topaz was at least interesting. And little Pen, the youngest Pokémon in the village, pouted and whined as her mother chivvied her away. "I wanted to see the _show_," the Pidgey cheeped, her wings raising miniature dust-storms. "I wanted to see the _magic_."

"It's not magic, it's cheap tricks," her mother said severely, and raising a wing the size of Pen's entire body she prodded her daughter back into their house. Lee's mouth twitched; not quite a smile, but a least a softening of her habitual frown.

Back in the coolness of her own hut, she took the smallest of sips from the water pail, just enough to moisten her parched mouth. As she stepped away from the bucket, the door burst open and Finn rocketed in. Whooping, he ran into her with surprising force—he was getting big, her baby brother—and she rocked backwards for a second but quickly regained her balance.

"Aww," Finn grumbled. He collapsed in a melodramatic imitation of death, completed with hanging-out tongue. "I'll get you one of these days."

Lee shook her head and walked across the hut to the little wooden chest that stood in the corner. Layers of dirt and dust clogged its once-polished wood; when Lee set her hands on it, they left clear prints.

"I can't believe Saggy Sam dared show his face in Topaz again," Finn continued, rolling on the ground until he lay on his back with all four legs sticking straight up. His short tail whipped back and forth, wearing a furrow in the dirt. "After what happened last time? Matt and Bode were throwing up for _weeks_ after drinking that stupid elixir of awesomeness or whatever it was. Serves them right for buying anything from that con." He pealed with laughter, his whole body shaking. "And did you see little Pen? She thinks it's _magic_—"

"We're leaving," Lee said, cutting through his giggling. She opened the trunk, and a puff of musty air wafted out.

Finn's eyes opened wide; the expression on his upside-down face was comical. "What? When? _How_?"

"Tomorrow. With Sam."

"You _asked_ him?" Her little brother's voice squeaked with disbelief.

"Not yet." He would say yes. He _had_ to say yes. Lee shut her eyes as she rummaged through the trunk. It had stayed closed for nearly seven years, but there had been a time where she knew the exact location of every one of its contents. Her hand brushed cloth…

The little Shinx heaved a gusty sigh. "You haven't even asked him yet." He waited an instant for Lee to acknowledge what he'd said, but then plowed on anyway. "So that means that I'll be the one asking."

"If you don't mind," Lee said, more interested in the contents of the trunk.

"Probably better that I do it, anyway." Finn puffed out his chest like a Pidove. "I'm such a natural charmer—" he batted his eyelids and donned an angelic smile— "that Saggy'll have no choice but to take us with him. Ooh, where do you think he's going? Can't be out to Garnet City—it's the wrong season—so he's gotta be going south to Opal City, or east to Diamond City. Oh, this'll be _great_! Will we keep traveling with him even after we get out of the desert?" He paused. "Lee?"

The Axew said nothing. She hunched over the moldering old trunk, staring at the yellow and white striped cloth in her hands as though it was the only thing in the world. Her eyes were shut, and she swayed on the spot as wave after wave of memory deluged her.

It wasn't as though it was the real thing, of course; her father's everyday bandana had been burnt to ashes in the fire. But even a spare cloth was enough to send her spinning nine, ten, twelve years back in time, before the world had fallen apart. Back when the gold and white bandanas of Team Titan had been so much more than cloth, had been a symbol.

Time had faded the gold to a sulky yellow, and spotted the white bands with beige. Lee knew that it had been a mistake to open the trunk of locked-away memories, but now that she held her father's old bandana in her hands, no power on earth could have made her put it away.

"Lee? You all right?" Finn approached her, his face screwed up into a frown. "Yuck, that smells terrible, all old and moldy, oldy and moldy, oldy moldy goldy…" His babbling trailed off into silence as Lee failed to react. Then, more seriously, "Was that your dad's?"

"Yeah." Lee's hands tightened on the old fabric.

"Oh, cool. Can I see it?"

"_No_."

"Okay." For once, the irrepressible Shinx was at a loss for words. "Um… Is there anything else in there?"

"No." Nothing important, anyway. Reaching out, Lee closed the trunk—it slammed loudly, and she winced at the noise; she hadn't meant the motion to be that forceful. She knew precisely what was in it: junk, oddments left over from her father's Rescue Teams, most of it broken or hopelessly obsolete. Her mother had saved it all anyway.

Finn's tail whisked back and forth. His limbs trembled with pent-up energy; sunset seemed much too far away to wait for entertainment. "Wanna play tic-tac-toe?"

"…Sure." The bandana was still clutched tightly in Lee's hand. That was odd; she'd thought she put it back in the trunk. She held it close to her face, feeling scratchy softness against her scales. Finn drew a lopsided grid in the dirt.

"I'm X's. I go first," her little brother declared.

Lee said nothing, just waited for him to make his first move. Even as she stared at the tic-tac-toe board, her thoughts were far away: in Diamond City long ago. The dark hut in Topaz felt profoundly unreal; as she scratched a lopsided O on the grid, she could have sworn that she was asleep in her bed in the blue-shingled house, dreaming of a strange future. Soon she would wake up…

The tic-tac-toe board spread and multiplied, spawning dozens of carelessly-drawn grids that carpeted the floor of the hut with X's and O's. Even split as she was between past and present, Lee still won every game.


	4. Three: Charm

**Chapter Three: Charm**

Nightfall. A fire burned in the center of the square, in front of Saggy Sam's wagon; its flickering light washed over the faces of the assembled Pokémon. The whole town had turned out, most drawn by the prospect of a good laugh at the peddler's ridiculous wares, and they stood close to the fire as the night chill began to creep in. Lee lurked on the edge of the throng, her olive-brown scales blending into the dusk. Finn, shivering with excitement, stood close by her side.

The crowd's low buzz of conversation faded as Saggy Sam appeared at the top of the wagon. The firelight washed his skin an autumnal brown, only increasing his resemblance to a diseased desert flower. "Quiet, if you please!" the Maractus called, and flourished one of his leafy appendages in an over-elaborate gesture. "Welcome, one and all, to Samuel Sagendorf's stupendous, spectacular travelling show!" The effect might have been more impressive had Sam possessed a voice more commanding than his nasal whine. When he paused, waiting for applause, little Pen cheered; Kile clapped huge hands, producing the sound of two rocks being smacked together. Other than that the crowd was silent.

"Firstly, news!" Saggy Sam declared with another flourish. "I'm sure you'd all love to hear something of the world outside your _charming_ town." Was that condescension that flashed so briefly in his broad smile? "Well, you're in luck! I was in Garnet City most recently, as you probably know, and Mister Ferric confided to me that this year's gold production will be the highest he's ever seen."

That prompted some happy muttering from the crowd—the busiest days of the year were when the gold caravans passed through Topaz on their way to Opal City and the coast. It was practically a festival, one that Finn always loved—but they would both be long gone by then, Lee reminded herself.

"Those heinous villains, the Black Deino's band, raided a convoy travelling from Diamond City to Garnet City last month," the peddler continued, provoking a chorus of hisses and gasps. He paused for a moment, reveling in the suspense. "Though the innocent victims fought heroically, at least a dozen were murdered by the wicked outlaws, and everything of value was taken. As usual, no one has seen hide nor hair of them since. It's said," he added, "that the prophet in Jade City predicted the attack, but…" Sam shrugged, adopting a lopsided grin that suggested deep skepticism on the subject of prophecies. "Who knows? The venerable mayor of Azure Town has retired, but no successor had been chosen yet that I'd heard; the town should vote for one soon, if it hasn't already. And," he leaned forward and dropped his voice to a whisper that implied a forthcoming shocker. "I _hear_ that the sheriff of Quartz Town arrested two Pokémon a couple weeks back for going around saying that they were—" he shuddered slightly at the indelicacy of it— "a Rescue Team."

The news caused an even greater reaction than the story about the bandit attack. Shocked gasps and nervous laughter filled the square, flickering like the firelight. Finn's mouth was a round O of surprise; he glanced at his older sister, but she ignored him. Lee stared fixedly at a cracked board just above one of the wheels on Saggy Sam's cart, refusing to react. She could feel the Pokémon glancing at her, their looks stabbing through her scales like tiny thorns, but she would give them nothing to see. It wasn't as if she was the only relation of a Rescuer in the town—Macey and Mara, the Sentret twins, were the daughters of a Rescuer who'd been killed in the final fight outside Opal City. Everyone knew it.

"But enough of this grim talk," Saggy Sam said, sounding satisfied with the effect he'd produced. "Why weary your hearts with dark tidings when you can instead feast your eyes on my magnificent merchandise? Behold!" With a dramatic flourish he indicated the wagon behind him; the Seismitoad pulled aside the cloth covering to reveal high stacks of boxes. "I bring wonders from all over the world for you to purchase!"

Finn snickered, and Lee couldn't help but roll her eyes. Many of the Pokémon left the warm circle of firelight and made their way back to their own home; the crowd shrank to half its former size in less than a minute. Sam's glossy smile slipped a bit when he saw half his audience leave, but he recovered quickly. "Open those boxes, stupid," he hissed to the Seismitoad, in perhaps a louder voice than he had intended. Effen tut-tutted loudly.

Pale green skin blushing a violent jade, Sam grabbed a small cloth sack from the nearest box. "This… What is this…" Closing his eyes, he visibly collected his composure and allowed another brilliant smile to blossom on his face. "Ah, of course. I have here, fresh from the western jungles, rare and wonderful Eye-drop Seeds! Just one of these little treasures will give you acuity like you've never imagined!" He rattled the bag with ferocious enthusiasm. "See farther and clearer, perceive hidden traps, and even," he savored the words, "see the invisible. And they can be yours, for the bargain price of… shall we say 30 Pokédollars for the bag?"

To Lee's surprise, Kile bought the bag of seeds. "What an idiot," Finn muttered in her ear. "Bet they don't work. He probably just swept up some seeds he found by the side of the road. Or picked them out of someone's lunch."

They both watched intently as the Rhydon place a tiny golden seed in his huge maw. The stony hide on his throat quivered as he swallowed. Sam stopped counting the stack of coins to watch, beaming with pride.

As far from the fire as she was, Lee couldn't see Kile's expression. A few seconds passed, and the Rhydon raised huge hands and began to rub at his eyes. "I… I…"

"Yes?" Sam enquired, slick as a Seviper's scales. "Tell us what you see? Any invisible Pokémon here with us?" He laughed raucously.

"I can't see! Everything's so dim..." Kile waved one hand wildly, nearly taking Matt's head off. "I can barely see a thing!" The bag of seeds fell from his flailing hand, spilling its contents in a cascade the color of sun-baked sand. Sam's smile oozed off his face.

"Serves him right," Finn chuckled, "buying anything from that cheat." He dissolved into gales of high-pitched laughter. Lee gave him a sharp look, and he quieted slightly, but his eyes still danced with amusement.

It took nearly half an hour for calm to be restored. A few of the larger Pokémon led Kile away; the Rhydon lurched and wobbled on every unsteady step, as if he couldn't even see where to put his feet. Saggy Sam, not brave enough to look any of the audience in the eye, busied himself with unloading various items from his many boxes, and bossing around the silent Seismitoad. His salesman's patter, when he began again, was much more subdued, but even if he had been the most convincing marketer in the world none of the Topaz residents would have bought anything from him. They looked stony-eyed at the dozens of spun-glass orbs he pulled out of padded boxes, smirked at the battered metal tubes he claimed were Insomniscopes crafted in Diamond City, exchanged cynical smiles as he sung the praises of the collection of carved sandstone figurines from Garnet City—"real sandstone, hundreds of years old, valuable antiques!"—and ignored the brightly colored ribbons altogether. When Sam finally wound down, the few Pokémon who remained by the fire got to their feet and, without a word to the peddler, made their way home.

Lee had always wondered how Saggy Sam had come by his nickname, but now she saw: as the Maractus watched the last of his audience leave, his whole body drooped, like a plant starved for water. His glassy showman's smile vanished without a trace, and he bundled up the ribbons and began to shove them back into the nearest box. The Seismitoad shrugged and started collecting the glass orbs.

"C'mon, Lee," Finn hissed, tugging at her arm.

"Huh?" Lee said slowly, still watching the peddler put the bright cloth strips away.

"We have to ask him if we can go with him. Right? Weren't we gonna do that after the show?"

"Oh. Yes." All at once a boulder had materialized in the pit of Lee's stomach; she felt faintly nauseous. The feeling grew as she followed her brother into the circle of dying firelight and approached the wagon.

"Excuse us, Mister Sagendorf?" Finn's voice dripped honey. His golden eyes were suddenly as round as coins, changing his face from mischievous to adorable.

The peddler looked up from the box of ribbons and gave Finn a brilliant smile. "Yes, my lad. You wanted to buy something? A pretty ribbon for your mother, perhaps, or a nice orb—"

"Well… no. We didn't." the little Shinx admitted, his face falling slightly. Lee frowned, not sure if this was the best way to begin.

Sam's smiled vanished like it had been yanked off his face on a string. "Stop wasting my time, then," he snapped, and went back to shuffling through the boxes.

"But we did have a business proposition for you," Finn continued.

"Eh?" At the word "business," the peddler perked up again.

"Yes. You see, my sister and I quite liked your show—" no trace of the falsehood showed in Finn's earnest expression— "but we thought it was missing something… Have you ever thought about having an assistant?"

Sam frowned. "An assistant?"

"Yeah! So you could tell the audience about, I don't know, the special super-strength seeds, and the assistant could eat one of the seeds and lift the wagon, or whatever. That way, the audience can see the effect of your products and not discover the side-effects—" the faintest shadow of a smirk crossed his face— "in front of a crowd of customers."

"I see your point," Sam conceded. "That certainly could be useful… But I'd have to find one for the cheapest pay possible, can't let it cut into my profits…"

"I know where you can find some assistants for no money at all," Finn said, his tail wagging furiously.

The peddler stared at him. "Really? Perfect! Where can I—"

"Ta-da!" the Shinx beamed, indicating himself and Lee.

Sam chuckled. "Heh heh heh, you two? You must be joking!"

"We're not. We'll be your assistants for free, at least for the next few towns you visit. Maybe longer, depends on where you're going."

"Two of you, though." Sam rubbed his flowery appendages together, evidently thinking hard. "It's a big cost in food—"

"We don't eat much," Finn said quickly.

"—but I'm sure you two'll do sundry jobs to make up for that extra expense," Sam said, illuminating them with his brightest smile. "We'll call it an experiment, shall we? See how the first show in Quartz Town goes, and work from there."

"Perfect." Finn grinned. "So we have a deal?"

"We do." The Maractus stuck out one of his appendages; after a moment of hesitation, Finn reached out and touched it with one blue-furred paw. "I'm sorry, I don't believe I know your names."

"I'm Finn; my sister's Lee."

"Sister?" Sam asked, surprised.

"Adopted," Lee clarified.

"…I see. Well, I'm leaving town at sunrise tomorrow, so you two had better be on my wagon then if you want to come with me. I'm not waiting for you. Got it?"

Lee nodded; Finn said, "Yes, sir."

"Good." Sam gave them one last gleaming smile, and then started rummaging through his boxes of unsold merchandise. "See you tomorrow, assistants."

"That was easier than I'd expected," Finn sighed as they headed home. "Thought he'd take loads more convincing. I was gonna offer him money if he kept refusing—don't look at me like that, I wouldn't have given him _all_ of it—but he gave in so quickly. Well, this is it, huh?" His smile stretched from ear to ear. "Off to see the world!"

That was right, Lee reminded herself: Finn had never lived outside Topaz. They'd found him wandering in the desert near the town, nearly dead of dehydration, too young and too exhausted to remember where he'd come from. "Yes. Off to see the world," she said quietly. Finn hugged her, his downy fur brushing softly against her scales, and she patted him clumsily on the head.

"Get some sleep," she told him as they entered the dark little hut. It was a vain hope: her brother was quivering with restless energy. "Early start tomorrow."

Sinking down into her little nest, she let her hand stray to the side and touch the bandana she had hidden beneath the bedding. _Did you hear that, father? I'm on my way._ Her hand tightened on a corner of the cloth as she drifted into sleep.

She dreamed an old, familiar dream, no less painful for being so well-worn. A small town on the shore, Pokémon moving tiny and dark amid the slate-grey buildings. And then the explosion: a white-hot flower unfolding and blooming from the heart of the town. Water hissed to steam; stone flowed like melting ice; skin and bone crisped to ash. The flower withered and died, and the sea rushed in, drowning everything in cold salt water.


	5. Four: Morning Sun

**Chapter Four: Morning Sun**

Both Lee and Finn were up long before sunrise—Lee wasn't sure that her little brother had slept at all. He bounced around the interior of the hut, keeping up a steady flow of excited chatter, while Lee packed a few items in her satchel. The little bag of coins went in the bottom, under half a stale loaf of bread and two bulging water bottles; she folded her father's bandana carefully and laid it over the top before closing the satchel and slinging it over her shoulder. Everything else in the hut could stay; there was no point hauling it across the desert. It wasn't as if any of it was important.

"Got everything?" she asked Finn. He nodded, and together they moved towards the door. Outside, the early-morning air chilled their faces. The door swung closed behind them. Lee had wondered if it would sound different somehow, have a special finality—but no, it was just a normal sound.

The sky was graying in the east; the stars glittered coldly overhead and the thin, pale moon had sunk nearly to the tops of the houses. Lee and Finn stumbled across the village square in the half-light, towards the dark silhouette of Saggy Sam's cart. The Seismitoad blinked stolidly at them as they approached; Sam, perched atop the haphazard stack of crates, said nothing. For a moment Lee was certain that he didn't intend to keep his promise.

Then, "You made it, I see," Sam said gruffly, not sounding particularly pleased that they had. "Right. Todd, these kids are coming with us. They can pull the cart if you get tired, heh heh."

"All right," the Seismitoad said, his expression not changing. Muscles bulging under his rubbery blue skin, he grasped the two wooden shafts and began to haul the cart forward.

"Wait!" Finn protested. "Give us a chance to climb up!"

"Not a chance," Sam called as the cart rumbled away. "Assistants walk. Only Samuel Sagendorf—" they couldn't see him in the dim light, but Lee imagined the peddler puffing his chest out importantly— "rides in the cart."

Finn muttered under his breath but, to Lee's relief, he did not protest. He and his sister hurried after the cart as it trundled out of Topaz, kicking up a cloud of dust and sand that stung at their eyes. As they passed the last house before the desert, Finn twisted his head around to look back at the home he was leaving; Lee stared straight ahead and kept her feet moving steadily forward despite a pang of regret that suddenly clutched her heart.

Then they were out of the village and moving down the faint road sketched by wheels and footprints through the sand. Lee adjusted the satchel on her back, held her head high, and increased her pace. She was on her way and no Pokémon in the world could make her turn back. She'd find an adventure, no matter what it took.

The moon set, the stars faded, and a harsh sun beamed down from the cloudless sky. Lee felt parched, her mouth coated with a layer of dust thanks to walking directly behind the cart. Finn's fur stuck out in odd tufts, clumped together with sweat; he glared at the back of Sam's head with surprising malice. "Only the great Samuel Sagendorf can sit in the cart," he warbled, mocking Sam's nasal voice. "Only the great Samuel Sagendorf gets any shade. Only the great—"

"Shh." Finn hadn't spoken loudly, but Lee couldn't be sure that the peddler hadn't heard him. Finn made a face at her and lapsed into silence, but his short tail lashed back and forth, telegraphing his irritation.

One foot in front of the next… The journey was monotonous; the unchanging desert landscape only increasing the impression that they weren't moving at all. As the day ground on towards noon and the sun's heat increased from uncomfortable to nearly intolerable, even the burly Seismitoad began to tire. The cart rolled forward at a slower and slower pace—a mercy for Finn and Lee, who were barely keeping up. The tip of Finn's tail left a furrow behind him as it dragged through the sand; his head drooped low enough that he nearly kicked himself in the chin while walking. Lee suffered through the heat without any visible signs of weariness, but she slowed down to stay by her little brother's side.

They paused in the early afternoon, all four Pokémon huddling in the slim shadow the cart cast. Lee drank deeply from her water bottle and gave Finn the crust of bread to nibble on. He gnawed it happily, tail wagging. Sam drank deeply from his own water bottle, acting as if he'd been walking for hours in the blazing sun rather than sitting comfortably beneath an awning. Todd the Seismitoad crouched in the shade and neither ate nor drank.

"Aren't you worried about bandits?" Finn asked, between bites of bread.

Sam shook his head. "I've been travelling this desert since before you were born, laddie, and I haven't once been attacked by an outlaw. They know to stay away from me."

_Yeah, because everything you're carrying is worthless_. Lee could tell by Finn's face that her brother was thinking the same thing. To her relief, Finn only said, "Well, we've picked the right wagon to travel with," and ripped off another mouthful of stale bread.

Sam beamed. "Well said, well said."

All too soon, the rest was over. The cart rumbled onwards through an endless sea of sand dunes, Lee and Finn marching by its side. The cruel sun sank towards the horizon, setting the sky aflame. Great banners of crimson and orange unfurled through the cooling air, shifting and dimming until finally giving way to the inky indigo night sky. Todd parked the cart in a place that Sam specified—a patch of sand that, Lee had to admit, looked exactly like the rest of the desert. She and Finn huddled together under the wagon, using Lee's satchel as a shared pillow.

The day's exertions had exhausted Finn; he fell asleep almost at once. Lee stayed awake longer, staring up at the rough wooden boards above her face and listening to her brother's quiet breathing. The vast, empty silence of the desert pressed against her ears. Occasionally a board would creak in the cart, or Saggy Sam would let out a particularly piercing snore, but that was all. The faint moonlight on the sand dunes made her think of snow-covered hills. She hadn't seen snow in years, she could barely remember…

She woke to the sound of Saggy Sam shouting. "Get up, assistants! We haven't got all day!" Rubbing at her sand-filled eyes, Lee crawled out from under the cart. The pink glow of sunrise filtered through fluffy white clouds in the east.

"_There_ you are," the peddler grumbled as he saw her. "This isn't a leisure trip, you know. Here, eat something—" he tossed her a small packet— "and let's get moving."

An angry retort bubbled up in Lee's throat, but she swallowed it and ducked back under the cart to wake up Finn. As the cart rolled into motion, she opened the packet and shared out the contents between the two of them as they walked. A double handful of dried berries and a round flatbread; not much, but nutritious and fairly bland. Finn made a face as he nibbled the chewy berries.

"These taste gross."

"It's all you're getting," Lee replied, and her brother rolled his eyes and heaved a gusty sigh. After nearly an hour of walking in uncharacteristic silence, he piped up with a question. "Why haven't we seen anyone? I thought there'd be more travelers than this. Or at least bandits or something. This is _boring_."

"Pokémon don't travel the desert as much as they used to," Lee explained. "Not now the Rescue Teams are gone. Ten years ago, it would've been different."

"Fan of the Rescue Teams, huh?" Sam called from his perch on the back of the cart. His wide smile was in place again, with a distinctly mocking glint to it.

Lee bristled. "So what if I am?"

"Lee's dad was on a Rescue Team!" Finn added, quick to stick up for his sister, but Lee winced as he said it.

"Oh, really?" Sam's smile grew wider; Lee clenched her hands into fists, and then reminded herself that it would be a bad idea to punch the Pokémon responsible for their transportation through the desert. "Which team? Or perhaps I should ask which _side_?"

"Team Titan," she snapped.

The peddler's jaw dropped. "Wait, that must mean… You're _Aurelius's_ kid? _The_ Aurelius?"

"You heard me," Lee mumbled.

"Heh heh, I had no idea. Aurelius is a legend, he's practically—" Seeing Lee's expression, Sam faltered a bit. "That is, I'm sorry for your loss, as well."

"Thanks." Glaring out at the desert, Lee stalked around the corner of the cart and broke into a run, not stopping until she was level with Todd. Sam was still talking, but his words wafted away on the light wind, and she didn't strain to hear.

She and the Seismitoad plodded along side by side, not speaking; Lee wasn't sure that Todd had even noticed she was there. That suited her just fine. She wanted some time to herself, to stew in the toxic mix of anger and pain that Finn and Sam had brought to the surface.

No. Lee closed her eyes, forced the feelings away. They sank down into her gut, where they burned dimly, a dying coal licking at her insides. That was better.

The sun came out from behind a cloud, its harsh rays slicing across Lee's vision. She flung up one hand to shield her face, and as she did so, she caught sight of movement atop a nearby sand dune. "There's a Pokémon over there!" she cried, pointing.

"Keep going," Sam called, as Todd stopped the cart. "It's no business of ours."

"Is it a bandit?" Finn asked excitedly. "I'm gonna go see!" Grinning at Lee, he dashed in the direction of the Pokémon.

"Finn…" Shaking her head, Lee squinted at the dune where she had seen the movement. Perhaps she had just imagined it… No, there it was again. As Finn hurried closer, the Pokémon's head poked over the top of the little hill. Blunt head tapering to a pointed snout, teal and cream fur—

"_Finn, stay away from him!"_ Lee screamed. Startled, her brother screeched to a halt, sending up a spray of sand. Lee's blood ran cold as the Typhlosion crested the dune.

But, no… The shape of the body was all wrong: the Pokémon was too short and too slender, walking on four legs rather than two. Not a Typhlosion at all. Lee's legs buckled; she sank to the ground, covering her eyes with her hands. Just a Quilava. Just an ordinary, unthreatening Quilava.

"You all right?" Todd asked.

She nodded once and then again and again, head swinging wildly, unable to stop. "Fine. I'm fine." With an effort, she peeled her hands away from her eyes. The Quilava was picking his way down the side of the dune, a marked hesitancy to his movements. Finn stared at him, blue fur bristling, a low growl rumbling in the back of his throat.

"Who are you?" Finn demanded. "What're you doing here?"

The Quilava blinked huge red eyes. "Do you know, I haven't the faintest idea." And with that, his legs folded underneath him and he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.


	6. Five: Night Slash

**Chapter Five: Night Slash**

"We should leave him," Saggy Sam declared. All four Pokémon stood in a circle around the unconscious Quilava, but rather than looking at the stranger Sam stared off into the distance, a frown creasing his shiny green brow. "He's not our problem."

"We can't," Lee replied, shocked.

Sam's smile was razor-sharp. "_I'm_ in charge here, in case you'd forgotten, and I won't be slowed down by some… some… someone who was stupid enough to get attacked by bandits."

"Or maybe he's working with the bandits," Finn suggested. The little Shinx's fur still bristled, and he eyed the Quilava with unmistakable dislike. "And he'll sneak off and tell them where we are as soon as we turn our backs… or kill us while we're sleeping."

"That's ridiculous," Lee snapped, amazed that her younger brother would think of something like that. "Look, he's injured. If we leave him out here in the sun, he'll probably die."

The Maractus shrugged. "We'll be long gone by then, though. No one will know."

"It'll be fine, Lee," Finn added, in what he intended to be a pacifying tone.

"_Listen_ to yourselves!" Lee exclaimed. "Abandoning a Pokémon to die in the desert is _despicable_—it goes against everything the Rescue Teams stand for—"

"But there aren't any Rescue Teams anymore," Sam interrupted silkily. "You of all Pokémon should know—daughter of Aurelius and all that. Now, you can come with us or you can stay with him; which'll it—"

"H… hello?"

The Quilava's eyes were open. For a moment he just stared up at them, and then he must have realized that he was surrounded, because he flinched away and raised his paws to shield his face. So small and nervous, covered with half-healed wounds; Lee wondered how she could have ever mistaken him for the Typhlosion. "Please, don't hurt me," he whispered.

"We're not going to hurt you," she said, wishing that she could make her rough rasp of a voice sound more soothing. "Everything'll be fine." She could feel Finn's golden-eyed glare burning holes in her scales, but she continued, "I'm Lee. Who're you?"

"I… I can't remember!" The Quilava stared at her, wild-eyed, gasping for breath. "I can't remember anything…"

"He's crazy," Sam broke in roughly. "Come _on_, all of you. We're leaving."

The Quilava mouthed the word "leaving" as if he had never heard it before, but fear blossomed in his red eyes. Lee braced herself for another argument with the peddler, but then…

"No."

"Excuse me?" Sam asked incredulously, staring at Todd.

The big Seismitoad rolled his shoulders uncomfortably, and then repeated, "No." Seeing his employer's blank stare, he elaborated, "You leave them here," he gestured at Lee and the Quilava, "you're leaving me too. Pull the cart yourself."

Sam flushed an angry viridian. "Fine. _Fine_." Turning sharply, he flounced back towards the cart, kicking up a spray of sand that pattered against Lee's scales. Finn sulked after him, leaving Todd and Lee with the stranger.

"Can you walk?" Lee asked.

"I… I think so…" The Quilava pushed himself up off the ground, legs wobbling; bracing himself, he took a few delicate steps forward. "Yes, I think I'm all right. Well, all right to walk, at least…" He limped in the direction of Sam's cart, Todd and Lee flanking him. "Thank you for sticking up for me," he murmured to Todd, sounding abashed. "I'm sorry to cause a fuss."

He shrugged, and then rumbled "It's what a Rescue Team would do."

"Are you on a… Rescue Team… then?"

"No," Lee said quickly, silently cursing Todd for having brought it up. Eager to change the subject, she asked, "You really can't remember anything?"

The Quilava shook his head, red eyes mournful. "Nothing before a few days ago… Three days, I think. I woke up all alone in the desert, that's the first thing I remember. I don't know how I got there, or anything."

"Huh."

"But…" He stumbled; Todd reached out one brawny arm to steady him. "Everything feels… off. Like I'm in the wrong skin. You know?"

"See," Sam called from his perch at the top of the cart, "he's crazy."

"I'm not," the Quilava insisted. "I'm not crazy," he repeated as the Seismitoad lifted him like a sack of flour and set him down inside the cart.

Sam glared down at Todd. "What do you think you're doing?"

"He can't walk far," the Seismitoad replied, and without waiting for his employer's reply he trudged around to the front of the cart.

"Unbelievable," Sam huffed, waving his flowery appendages in dismay as the cart began to move. "You, assistant—you're fired. Get away from my cart this instant—"

Lee took a step away from the peddler's cart, looked out over the vast empty desert that surrounded them, and then glanced back at Saggy Sam. He went an even deeper shade of green; his limbs flapped wildly, giving the impression of a hurricane tearing through a flower garden. "Oh, I… You…." He let out a wordless growl of frustration. "All right, stay with us, see if I care. But you and your friends are leaving the instant we get to Quartz Town!" He turned his back. "I'm never doing something like this ever again… Damned Topaz …"

Ignoring the peddler's disgruntled mutterings, Lee fell into step beside her younger brother. To her surprise, Finn didn't speak, instead staring grumpily at the back wheels of the cart. The fur on the back of his neck still stood on end; his tail twitched back and forth.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Oh, remembered me, have you?" Finn muttered. "Thought you'd be riding in the cart with your new friend." He turned his head and glared at her with surprising venom. "What's so great about him, anyway? Some loser who was stupid enough to get beaten up by bandits—that is, if he's not working for the bandits and gonna sell us out the instant we turn our backs. I bet the whole lost memory thing is just an act, makes him seem all sad and mysterious… And you fell for it, I can't believe—"

"Finn, stop."

The little Shinx's face twisted; for a moment Lee thought that he would snarl at her, but instead his head drooped until his nose nearly touched the sand. "Sorry," he muttered. And then, as if the words were being dragged from deep inside him, "I just… don't like him. Be careful."

Lee reached out and patted his shoulder. Finn glanced up, a tiny, tired smile overtaking his face. "How long before we get to Quartz Town, do you think?" he asked.

"I'm not sure. Another day?"

"Yeah, shouldn't be more than another day," Sam called from the back of the cart, before remembering that he was angry with her and starting to scowl again. "That is, if everything goes smoothly. This trip has had enough unpleasant surprises already."

The Quilava's voice floated back on the breeze: "I'm sorry..." Lee could hear Finn grinding his teeth.

* * *

It was a very tired and surly group of Pokémon that halted in the shallow dip between two sand dunes after sunset. As soon as the cart stopped, Finn flung himself down on the sand, rolling over so that his legs stuck straight up in the air. "I'm never moving again," he muttered.

"Get out," Sam growled from inside the cart. "You can ride during the day, but you're not sleeping up here."

"All right," the Quilava said meekly, and jumped over the side of the cart. He landed awkwardly on the sand, his back leg twisting beneath him. "Ow," he murmured.

"You all right?" Lee asked. Finn's face, momentarily pacific, curdled into a grimace.

"Fine," the Quilava sighed. Glancing beneath the cart as if a featherbed might suddenly materialize there, he added, "I take it we'll be sleeping on the sand?"

"Yeah."

Finn tugged at Lee's arm. "Lee, I'm _hungry_." His sister gestured towards the cart, indicating that he should go ask Sam for some food. Sighing in a very put-upon manner, Finn got up, shook the sand out of his fur, and called up to the peddler in a syrupy-sweet voice, "Sam, may we have some food, please?"

"All right." Sam's sigh suggested that it was not all right in the least. They heard him rummaging through the boxes in the wagon, and a moment later a small cloth bag flopped down to the sand. "There's enough in there for you to share with Lee and Gerald."

"Who's Gerald?" Finn and the Quilava asked in unison.

The Maractus waved one flowery appendage at the Quilava. "You are. Well, we have to call you _something_," he added defensively.

"I don't want to be 'Gerald'," the Quilava muttered.

"Nigel, then? Kent? Marcus?"

The Quilava shook his head. "I don't know… I wish I could remember…"

"We could just call you 'stupid'," Finn suggested brightly, earning himself a glare from Lee. The Quilava appeared not to notice.

"Hector?" Sam suggested. "Or how about Samuel, heh heh, always good to have another Sam around—"

"No, thank you."

The peddler frowned. "Lucius, Marlow, Ethelbert—"

"_Ethelbert?_" Finn howled with laughter; the Quilava shuddered.

"—Heath, Benedict, Ander… Oh, I give up," Sam growled, and lurched away from the edge of the cart. "If you remember your name, O Pokémon of mystery, be sure to let us know."

"I liked 'Marlow'," the Quilava said quietly. "I mean, it doesn't ring any bells, but like he said, I have to call myself something. Until I remember, at least."

"Sure," Lee agreed.

Finn shrugged. "Whatever."

After a brief meal of the nearly-stale biscuits that Sam had provided, the three Pokémon crawled under the cart to sleep. Finn and Lee used Lee's satchel as a pillow, as usual; Marlow curled up in a tight ball beside one of the cartwheels. A light, chilly breeze whispered through the desert, tossing up a few sand grains that tickled Lee's nose. She yawned hugely, and was asleep in an instant.

* * *

Shouts, the sound of feet skidding across sand, a sudden yelp… Lee sat up, blinking sleep from her eyes. Bathed in the sickly moonlight, fast-moving silhouettes blurred across the desert sand. Wondering if she was still dreaming, she crawled out from beneath the wagon—only to frantically hurl herself away as a spout of water gushed past her, slamming a small Pokémon against the wagon with enough force to rock it on its wheels.

The Pokémon picked itself back up, gathered up the folds of loose skin that had fallen around its ankles, and then vaulted forwards. Lee dodged, slipping on the treacherous sand, and the Scraggy's clenched fist whistled past her head. Rushing forwards, she slashed at him and was astonished to feel her tusks bounce off rubbery skin, as the Scraggy yanked the folds of loose skin up to his neck. Water gushed across the sand dunes as Todd unleashed another attack—she couldn't see who he was fighting, something pale and spiked, with red eyes that glowed through the darkness—and Lee slipped on the suddenly wet footing, landing hard on her back.

"Lee!" That was Finn's voice. Mired in the slippery mud, she struggled to rise. "Get away from her!" Fur bristling and eyes aflame, the Shinx flung himself at the Scraggy, whose powerful kick connected with him mid-leap and sent him flying limply away.

Regaining her feet, Lee hesitated, torn between defending herself and rushing to her brother's side. The Scraggy rushed towards her, punching and jabbing with one hand, and Lee fell backwards under the onslaught. Her mind reeled, scrambling to remember Bismarck's old lessons, but he was moving too fast and she couldn't think…

Someone was screaming beside Lee's ear; glancing to the side, she saw that Saggy Sam cringed near the wagon wheel, covering his face. "Don't let them get me don't let them get me don't let them get me…" he repeated, as the Scraggy's punches landed bruisingly on Lee's scales and her tusks bounced uselessly off the layer of loose skin. Todd's assailant was pushing him back towards the wagon. Water sprayed against Lee and the Scraggy, making them flinch, but the Seismitoad was limping heavily. One of the Scraggy's punches landed square on Lee's nose and stars burst in front of her eyes, filling the dark desert with color; rocking back, she felt the crest on her head scrape against the boards of the wagon.

And then flames blossomed in the night and the Scraggy staggered back, shrieking. The stench of burning skin filled the air. Lee lunged forward, seeing that his guard was down, and her tusks slashed across his side. Marlow spat out another gout of flames, twin fires blazing on his back, and Lee felt a sudden stab of fear. _He looks like…_

But no, that Typhlosion was gone; this was just Marlow, his red eyes narrowed to slits as he kept up a steady stream of fire. The Scraggy's skin blistered and cracked; abruptly he turned tail and fled, loose skin flapping around its ankles. The jet of flames vanished and Lee rubbed at her eyes, trying to accustom herself to the sudden darkness. Marlow's feet pattered on the sand as he raced past her to help Todd.

Rubbing her aching nose, Lee hurried to Finn's side. The little Shinx lay like a pile of rags on the sand; looking at him, Lee felt her heart clench into a fist of fear. But when she reached out to touch his shoulder, he slowly opened his eyes. "Lee? That you?"

"Are you all right?" He had no obvious injuries, but his eyes were unfocused. Lee fought down the urge to hug him until his bones cracked. "Don't you _ever_ do that again."

"'m fine…"

"He could've killed you!"

"Could've killed _you_." Finn struggled to get up. Behind them, a Pokémon screeched, and then a Nidorina rushed past them, sand flying from its feet. Scorch marks crisscrossed its pale hide. "What's happening?"

"Marlow, I think."

"Oh, him," Finn grumbled, successfully finding his balance. Lee braced herself to catch him if he fell.

"He saved our lives. Probably."

Bitterness flitted across the little Shinx's face. "Whatever."

They made their way slowly back to the cart. Todd was sitting propped against one wheel while Saggy Sam fussed over his injured leg; Marlow lay on the ground, panting. He raised his head wearily as Lee and Finn approached. "You all right, Lee?"

"Fine," she replied, feeling her jaw pulse with pain as she spoke.

"Good…" His head sunk down again to rest on his front paws. "It took me too long to wake up… Should've been there sooner. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. You saved us."

The Quilava shrugged, and his eyes drifted closed. Worried, Lee stepped closer to him, but he appeared to be sleeping peacefully. Turning around, she beckoned to Finn. "Get a berry salve from Sam."

"Uh-uh." Finn shook his head, backing away. "I'm not taking any medicine that fraud gives me." Lee winced, glancing over her shoulder to see if Sam had heard, but the Maractus was still focused on Todd. Wicked scratches lacerated the Seismitoad's thick blue skin; he chewed something, probably some kind of berry, while Sam dabbed ay\t deep cut on his leg with a cloth.

"Poisoned," the peddler snapped as Lee walked up to him. "Damned bandits… Lucky I had this Pecha salves…"

"I can walk…" Todd said slowly.

"Shut up!" Sam snapped, and then relented. "Where would we be without someone to pull the cart, eh? Can't let that poison set in."

"Do you have something I could give Finn?" Lee asked.

Sam flapped one flowery appendage in the direction of the front of the wagon. "There's a few boxes of berries, over next to the weather bands. Stop twitching!" he snapped at Todd, who hadn't moved a muscle.

Rummaging through the overcrowded wagon, Lee squinted at the fading labels; most were written in footprint runes that blurred into illegible squiggles in the feeble moonlight. Opening boxes at random, she found piles of rocks, dozens of tiny jars filled with a variety of substances, spun-glass orbs wrapped in soft Mareep wool, and, _finally_, a box of rather wrinkled berries. Lee grabbed an Oran in each hand and clambered out of the cart, nearly tripping over a massive ceramic statue of a Tropius.

Finn ate the berry obediently, dark juice dripping down his chin. "Get some rest," Lee told him, but he shook his head adamantly.

"What if they come back? Someone has to protect you!"

"I don't think they'll be back," Lee muttered, silently adding, _besides, I can take care of myself._

"But—"

"_Finn_."

"All right, all right," Grumbling to himself, head hanging low, Finn made his way back to the cart. Lee watched to make sure that he stayed there before she walked over and gave the other Oran berry to Marlow.

"Oh, no, thank you," the Quilava said. He had pushed himself into a sitting position and now scanned the darkened dunes, watching for the outlaws' return. "I'm not injured."

Lee shrugged, placing the berry on the ground beside his paw. "Suit yourself."

"Here, you should have it." He tried to give it back to her, but she edged away, feeling her stiff muscles complain.

"I'm fine."

"If you say so." He sounded unconvinced. "We could split it…?"

She sighed. "If you insist." Accepting a raggedly-torn half of the berry, she popped it into her mouth. It was old and a bit chewy, losing its flavor, but as the juice trickled down her throat she could feel the aches under her scales draining away. Too many bruises; she gotten out of practice, wasting away in Topaz. What Bismarck would've said, or her father, if they'd that mess …

"Does this sort of thing happen a lot?"

Startled out of her thoughts, Lee couldn't understand the question. "Huh?"

"Brigands, descending upon travelers in the dead of night. Does it happen frequently?"

"Oh. Uh, it's more common these days, now that…" _Now that the rescue teams are gone._ "Yeah. Although it's strange… I've heard Saggy Sam's usually pretty safe, because he doesn't have anything worth… What?"

"Sorry," Marlow said, through peals of laughter, "what did you call him?"

"Saggy Sam," she repeated. A bit defensively, she added. "It's what everyone in Topaz calls him, so…"

"What's Topaz?" Marlow asked.

"A town—small town—out in the desert. Finn and I lived there for a few years."

"Finn… He's the little blue one?"

Lee frowned at him, wondering if he was making fun of Finn. "Yeah. My brother."

"Not much family resemblance."

"He's adopted."

"Ah." He hesitated, and then said, "I'm sorry, have I offended?"

She shook her head. "It's fine. There wasn't really a chance for formal introductions."

Marlow laughed. "Yeah, it's been a bit hectic, hasn't it?" In the silence that followed, Lee looked out through the darkness, searching for signs of movement. There were none; the bandits had gone. Then the Quilava piped up, "So, are you heading to Topaz now?"

Lee suppressed a weary sigh; if she'd known how many questions Marlow would pull out, she wouldn't have brought him the berry at all. "No." Another silence, more uncomfortable than the last, and Lee realized what an edge her voice had held. "We're coming from there. Going to… Quartz Town, I guess. I'm not sure where we'll go after that."

"Just travelling around?"

"Yeah."

"Sounds nice."

Lee didn't reply. After a moment, Marlow said, "Well, I don't really know where I'm going, either." He paused, waiting for a reaction, but didn't get one. More tentatively, he continued, "And, well, I'd like someone to travel with… If you'll have me… Would you mind?"

"You want to travel with us?"

"If you wouldn't mind," he said nervously.

Lee shrugged. "All right."

Marlow blinked. "Just like that?"

"Yeah. Fine." She had no problem with him tagging along; he'd proved he could hold his own in a fight, at least, and three would be better than two if they ran into bandits. Whether Finn would agree was another question entirely, one she didn't want to think about at the moment. Seeing that Marlow still looked incredulous, she sighed. "I mean it, okay?"

Marlow's smile could have illuminated the desert night for miles around. "Okay."


	7. Six: Astonish

**Chapter Six: Astonish**

_He floats in warm darkness, paws not touching the ground—not that there is any ground to be seen. Eyes open or closed, it doesn't make a difference to the same soft blackness surrounding him. Occasionally a current of cool air brushes past, provoking a shiver despite his fur._

"_Hello?" His voice sounds odd. "Hello? Is there anyone there?" _

_No reply. He waits, adrift in the void. Time passes—perhaps a seconds, perhaps hours. There is no way to tell._

"_Is this a dream?" _

_And, echoing from a great distance, comes the reply. "…Yes…"_

"_Who's there?" He tries to turn towards the voice, but it could have come from anywhere in the featureless darkness. "Is there someone else there?"_

_Movement, just a flicker in the corner of his eye—a slight graying of the darkness as a glowing figure approaches. Pale and green—_

"Wait!"

Too late. He woke up.

* * *

The cry jolted Lee awake. For a moment she had no idea where she was—where was the familiar grey roof of her room, and the blue curtains at the windows? But no, as awareness trickled back she remembered that the house in Diamond City was gone, had been gone for a long time. The rough boards overhead, barely visible in the bleak pre-dawn light, belonged to Saggy Sam's cart.

Still early, yet. They probably wouldn't start walking again for almost an hour. Sighing quietly, Lee got up and dusted the sand off her scales. She had no desire to return to the dreams of fire and blood that her rude awakening had cut short.

Sand shuffled softly under her feet as she walked out into the desert. A few stars still glittered coldly in the paling sky; a chilly breeze whispered across the dunes. Lee sat down, facing towards the eastern horizon. As she watched the stars vanish from the sky, she felt the dreams begin to fade as well.

After a while, Marlow walked over and sat down beside her. Tilting his head back to gaze at the last few stars, he said quietly, "You couldn't sleep either?"

Lee shook her head.

"Bad dreams?"

"…Yeah."

"Me too," Marlow admitted. "Well, not _bad_, they weren't nightmares… Just confusing."

Lee dragged one scaly finger through the sand, digging a deep furrow. "Mine were nightmares."

"I'm sorry…"

"Don't be," she said curtly. "I'm used to them by now." Seeing the sympathetic look that crossed Marlow's face, Lee grimaced. "Forget it."

"All right." Marlow looked up at the sky for a while and then, as Lee had known he would, started talking again. "So, we'll get to Quartz Town today, right?"

"Yeah." Why was he asking? In the three days since the bandit attack, Saggy Sam hadn't stopped complaining about how long it would take to reach civilization. With Todd's injured leg, it was astonishing they had still made such good time.

"Great. That's great." Marlow pushed a pile of sand back and forth with one paw. "Maybe I'll see something I remember there. Or someone who remembers me."

"Hmm."

Marlow sighed. "You don't really want to talk to me, do you?" He scattered the sand pile with a flick of his paw.

"It's fine," Lee lied.

The Quilava gave her a radiant smile. "Oh, good. So, I was wondering…"

* * *

Quartz Town rose up out of the desert like a Wailord—or at least a Wailmer—surfacing from the deep. Long rows of low wooden houses, their paint peeling under the ever-present sun, scoured by dust and sand. A rickety watchtower jutted up at each end of the town; squinting against the bright sun, Lee could see a pair of Pokémon sitting atop each tower. The road that led through the center of the town was wide enough for two Metagross to comfortably walk side by side and—especially in comparison to tiny Topaz—bustling with Pokémon. A dozen wagons, well-worn tarps bulging over stacks of chests and barrels, clumped on the outskirts of the town under the watchful eyes of burly guards.

Lee couldn't stop a sigh of relief at the sight of the wagons: if there was a whole caravan passing through Quartz Town, she and Finn—and Marlow, she reminded herself—should be able to find passage to… somewhere.

Somewhere that wasn't Topaz. That was an improvement, at least.

Todd pulled the cart up near the caravan wagons, stopping slightly to one side of the main group. A pair of burly Machamp, lounging in the shade provided by the tall wagons, snickered to one another at the sight of the shabby cart and the rag-tag group of Pokémon that accompanied it. Sam, already standing proudly at the front of the cart, scowled and drew himself up even more stiffly. "All right, you," he called down to Lee, "Here's Quartz Town. Now get lost. I hope I never see you again."

"Thank you oh so much!" Finn's voice dripped sugar as he smiled up at the peddler; his tail whipped back and forth furiously. Not wanting to start an argument, Lee nodded to Todd and then walked away from the wagon and towards Quartz Town, ignoring Saggy Sam completely.

"The Shinx has manners, at least," Sam said to no one in particular. Finn rolled his eyes—and his face suddenly crystallized into a scowl as Marlow jumped down from the cart.

"What's he think he's doing?"

"I'm coming with you," Marlow said, grinning as he hurried to catch up with Finn and Lee. "So, what shall we do? Are we staying here?"

"Wait, wha—no. No, absolutely not. Lee—" Finn's voice pitched up to a whine, "he thinks he's coming with us."

"He is," Lee said, not bothering to turn around—she could imagine the expression on her little brother's face perfectly well.

A growl rumbled in Finn's throat. "No he isn't."

"I don't mean to be a bother…" Marlow mumbled.

"Well, you are," Finn told him. "So go away."

"Finn!" Lee snapped, stopping in her tracks.

The little Shinx stared at her, blue fur bristling. "What? What'd I do?"

Marlow hunched his shoulders and dug his feet into the dusty ground, as though he were trying to curl into a ball. "…I'm sorry…"

"Stop apologizing!" Lee barked, and instantly regretted it as Marlow looked stricken. "Wait, I didn't mean…" Her hands knotted into fists; she took a deep breath, trying to hold on to her temper. "Finn, Marlow doesn't have anywhere else to go. He's going to travel with us for a while. Okay?"

"But this was _our_ adventure!" Finn cried, his voice cracking. "Ours! You promised—just _us_, seeing the world…"

"Plans change—"

"No!" Turning tail, Finn fled up the road and into Quartz Town, dodging Pokémon. Lee called out to him, but he ignored her; turning down a side street, he vanished from sight.

"Damn it!" Lee growled, kicking at a pebble near her foot. It bounced down the road, raising tiny puffs of dust; she glared after it, wanting to follow it and kick it again. "He's such a stubborn—"

Something touched her shoulder. Lee whirled around, tusks slashing, and froze just in time to avoid gashing Marlow's shoulder. The Quilava flinched away, curling into a ball on the ground. "Please don't hurt me!"

Lee sank to the ground, her head in her hands.

* * *

Finn raced through Quartz Town, veering from one side of the road to the other to avoid the Pokémon in the road. A Leafeon walked directly into his path and then stopped; Finn nearly tripped over his own paws as he struggled to change direction. Letting out a furious snarl, he kept running.

He wouldn't look back, he told himself. He'd find a nice spot to sit and wait and let Lee come find him. Then they could leave and keep going on their adventure, before that stupid Quilava could catch up.

The Quilava. Even the thought of him was enough to start Finn growling. Who did he think he was? As if not being able to remember anything made him all cool and mysterious… Ha! And acting like such a hero after the bandit attack—well, Finn still wasn't convinced that it hadn't all been set up. Everyone knew that bandits never bothered to attack Saggy Sam. It was so _obvious_. Why couldn't Lee see it?

Lee. She'd agree with him eventually. She _had_ to. In spite of himself, Finn glanced back over his shoulder—and realized with a shock that he could no longer see his sister. Somehow he'd left the main road; the edge of the town, where he'd left Lee and the Quilava, was nowhere to be seen. The back walls over several building loomed around him; he was in some sort of narrow alley, lined with rotting barrels.

All right, then. Finn leaped up on the most sturdy-looking of the barrels and settled down in a patch of sunlight. He'd wait here for Lee. A few Pokémon were walking down the alley towards him; clearly this road wasn't too far off the main street. His sister would come find him eventually, and then everything would be okay again. Lulled by the warm sunlight, he half-closed his eyes—

Only to open them again and sit bolt upright, fur bristling, as he recognized the two approaching Pokémon.

"But I don't see _why_ she wants us to," the Nidorina was saying furiously. Irritated-looking blotches still discolored her pale hide; new skin was just beginning to grow over the burns. "It's a waste of time and it's _boring_."

"The Mistress knows what she's doing, Marion," the Scraggy replied, a weary expression on his bruised face. "Think of the big picture. If we want to crush Magnus's gang once and for all then we'll need to do something drastic—and this job sets it up…" As the pair passed Finn, he trailed off, round head rotating around to fix the Shinx in an aggressive stare. "What are you looking at, kid?"

"Yeah!" the Nidorina added, raising a paw to reveal wickedly sharp claws. "What're you looking at?"

Finn crouched lower on the barrel, wishing he could disappear. "Oh, uh, nothing?"

The Scraggy scratched at a peeling flap of skin on the side of his face. "Say… You look familiar."

"I do. Do I?" Oh, if only he was a psychic and could teleport away, like in all the stories of Rescue Teams chasing bandits. "Just one of those faces, I guess…?"

"Not a lot of Electric-types out in the desert," the Nidorina said. "You think we've seen two Shinx in one week, Lazar?"

The fur along Finn's spine stood on end as the Scraggy slowly grinned. "I don't think so. Come here, you—" His arm shot out, frighteningly fast, but Finn was faster. Fear gave him wings as he leaped off the barrel and over the Scraggy's head, dodged the Nidorina's vicious swipe, and raced up the alley.

Where was Lee? Finn's heart pounded a frantic drumbeat as he ran. He could hear the two bandits getting closer; as he ducked to the side to avoid a Leafeon—not _again!_—he cursed himself for having wandered off, and Lee for not having come after him.

The end of the alley was approaching rapidly. Panting with fear and exertion, Finn tried to run faster. Something clipped his back paws; he stumbled, rolled, and smashed into a pair of slender white pillars.

"Are you all right?"

Not pillars, legs. Eyes watering, Finn squinted up at the tall Pokémon, who was peering down at him with rose-colored eyes beneath an overhanging green brow. The Pokémon extended one long green limb. "Sorry. Let me help you up."

"'m fine," Finn muttered, scrambling to his feet and shaking the dust out of his fur. The stranger was spindly enough that a gust of desert wind might blow him away, but Finn didn't like the look of the long blades that protruded from his arms. "I need to—"

"Got you!" the Scraggy yelled triumphantly. Finn whirled around, teeth bared, electricity crackling from his disheveled fur. The Scraggy reached out to grab him…

A blur of movement. In a split-second, the Scraggy was on his back on the ground, a sharp green blade pressed against his throat. The Nidorina, who had been hot on her partner's heels, kicked up a cloud of dust as she tried to reverse direction.

"Are these Pokémon bothering you?" the tall green-and-white Pokémon asked, as calmly as if he were enquiring about the weather.

Still quivering with fear and adrenaline, it took Finn a few seconds to realize that he was supposed to answer. "Wha…? Oh, yes. Yes, they're chasing me." _Well, duh._ "They tried to attack me…"

"I see." The Pokémon leaned forward slightly, putting the tiniest bit of pressure on the blade; the Scraggy, which had been struggling to extricate itself, suddenly went absolutely still. "Hear that? I think you should stop."

The Scraggy's mouth opened; no words came out. Farther down the alley, the Nidorina was backing away very slowly.

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that? I didn't quite hear." His voice was calm, almost monotone; Finn shivered.

"…I'll stop…" the Scraggy gasped, trying to move his mouth as little as possible. Despite his best efforts, his round chin brushed against the edge of the blade. A crimson line painted its way across his pale skin.

"Good." The Pokémon stepped back, letting the Scraggy up; he and the Nidorina immediately fled down the alleyway, practically gibbering with panic. Finn grinned.

"Thanks…" he mumbled to the Pokémon, who waved one green hand as if to say it was nothing. "Er… My name's Finn."

"Sherringford," the Pokémon said somewhat absently, watching the Scraggy and the Nidorina turn a distant corner and disappear.

"What?"

The Pokémon turned around, his pallid face expressionless. "Sherringford. It's my name."

Finn hastily turned his laugh into a cough; it wouldn't be smart to antagonize a Pokémon with blades longer than Finn's entire body, he reminded himself. Sherringford tilted his head to one side, regarding Finn in silence. The little Shinx looked away, tail twitching: there was nothing soft in Sherringford's rose-colored gaze, which seemed to be boring right through Finn's skull.

"You're new to Quartz Town." It wasn't a question.

"Y… yeah. I just got here, my sister and me, we're traveling and…" He stopped, feeling icy claws clutch at his heart. "I left her alone! Why did I… what if she's…" The words stuck in his throat as images of the Scraggy and the Nidorina attacking Lee filled his head. "I have to go back and protect her!" he blurted.

"Fine."

Finn took a few steps and then stopped, hanging his head. "I, uh, I don't know where I'm going," he admitted.

"Oh." A long pause, and then the corner of Sherringford's mouth quirked, hinting at the beginning of a smile. "I think I might be able to help."

* * *

Lee stalked along the main street of Quartz Town, craning her neck as she looked for Finn. Marlow slunk along in her wake, head hanging so low that it nearly touched the dirt road, casting nervous glances at the Pokémon that walked by. Most were heavyset and tough-looking, their weather-beaten and sunburned faces tokens of years in the desert. Lee ignored them, but Marlow gazed around with wide eyes, drinking everything in.

Despite her impassive face, Lee was close to panic. _How could you let Finn run off like that?_ she snarled at herself, as she peered down an alley. No Shinx there, only a drunken Hoothoot clutching a dusty glass bottle in its talons as it lay sprawled in a tangle of broken crates.

_It wasn't my fault,_ she protested weakly. _Oh, yes it_ was_!_ "Keep up, Marlow!" she snapped, and the Quilava, who had been staring at a Krokorok and an Arbok arguing over a heavy burlap sack, flinched and scurried after her. Lee would have felt guilty, if her panic and anger about her little brother had allowed room for any other emotions.

"Lee!" a voice called, and the Axew's legs wobbled as a wave of relief washed over her. A smile creased her face as Finn hurried towards her. "Lee, I'm so glad I found you! I saw those two—"

She didn't hear the rest of the sentence, because suddenly she was four years old again, in the distant past, standing in the parlor of the blue-shingled house in Diamond City as her father introduced her to his guests. "This lovely young lady is Sapphire of Team Aura," Aurelius was saying in his deep rich voice, and the sleek Dragonair smiled beautifully, "and her teammate Boris," a doughty Granbull whose protruding jaw ruined his attempt at a grin, "and, of course, their leader…" A slender Gallade, young and handsome, a sky-blue cloth tied around his neck, who stepped forward and made an elegant bow…

He was still wearing that bandana, faded and stained and torn but recognizably blue, as he walked towards her up the Quartz Town street. Lee shook her head, unable to believe that it could really be him. "Sherringford?"

The Gallade smiled politely; his eyes, vague and disinterested, looked right through her. "Have we met?"


End file.
